Emma Shercliff

Emma is a publishing consultant and literary agent. In 2020, she founded Laxfield Literary Associates as a response to the lack of literary agents outside London, and with a focus on working with under-represented writers. Emma has worked for publishing companies in Paris, Melbourne, Abuja and London, and as a consultant for the British Council in Nigeria, Iran and Ukraine. She was formerly Managing Director of Macmillan English Campus, a global digital publishing division of Macmillan Publishers and Executive Director of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation (U.S.) from 2009-2014. She is a non-executive director of Cassava Republic Press UK, an award-winning independent African publishing company.

Emma holds an MA in Modern Languages from Cambridge University and an MA in International Development & Education from the UCL Institute of Education, University of London. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the UCL Institute of Education; her PhD research focuses on the role and contribution of women within the African publishing industry.